Warren G: Pushing Weight Like Rhymes

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Warren G is one half of the Hip-Hop representation on the fourth season of VH1’s Celebrity Fit Club. Along with the other half, Da Brat, the G-Funkster is challenged with moving a different sort of weight. During the course of the season, the celebrities were divided into two overweight teams and the squad that dropped the most percent of body fat wins the cash prize.

All the way through to the finale there was escalating bad behavior, fun, games and challenges. AllHipHop.com spoke with Warren G about his new diet plan and why he chose to lose weight in front of the cameras.AllHipHop.com: So why did you decide to go on Celebrity Fit Club?Warren G: Well, I got a phone call one day and one of my people said, Celebrity Fit Club called and they want know do you want to be a part of the show.” When I first heard them actually I was like, “Oh hell naw, I’m cool.” I thought it was sort of like Surreal Life type thing. So the producer called me, I came down and I sat with him and he explained the whole show to me. The way he explained it, it wassomething that can be good for me as far as losing the weight that I gained. Because I got a physical and the doctor was like, “You gain 15 to 20 more pounds and you are gonna be eligible for diabetes and high blood pressure which runs in your family.” So I was just like I have to do something to keep it off. They called me down, I accepted the offer and it turned out to be something good for me.AllHipHop.com: How did the producers of the show even know you’d gained weight?Warren G: I mean, really, that’s what I’m trying to figure out. AllHipHop.com: Did they think you were fat and how did they know that you gained weight?Warren G: I mean, I was getting chunky because I was having fun going to tailgate parties, football games, coaching Pop Warner Football and just eating hot dogs, ribeye steaks, fried chicken, fish and drinking beer. All that stuff catches up to you. My face started getting fat, I had a potbelly starting to form. [laughs]AllHipHop.com: Yeah, we’ve seen the pot belly on the show. You really handled yourself well on the show, you were the voice of reason on many occasion. Have you watched it?Warren G: Yeah, I watched it a couple of times. I learned that from Oprah. I know a lot of people really ain’t feeling Oprah too much, but I learned being the person you are on that camera is the person you have to be in real life. I want people to see me. AllHipHop.com: After you knew you were going on the show, did you start cutting back on food or did you just go crazy and eat everything?Warren G: Oh, I was eating. I was eating. I think I had probably about a month or two before the show started so I was eating my ass off. I knew once the show started, I was going to have to do something that was going to be hard for me as far as changing my eating habits. Once I went on the show, I had to do the detox for nine days. It was killin’ me. I didn’t eat any meat. I didn’t eat nothing – just vegetables, lentil beans, fruit and oatmeal. I couldn’t eat nothing but that, so I did that. I kind of got used to it, I started putting my own twist to it with the egg whites and stuff. Awww, it was off the chain!AllHipHop.com: Break it down.Warren G: I was mixing egg whites with spinach, onions, garlic, mushrooms and tomatoes. It was like an omelet, but I would scramble it. For my side, I would have some lentil beans. Eggs mixed up like that with some nice good lentil beans and a cup of water? Oh, it was off the chain, I had a ball!AllHipHop.com: What did you miss eating while you were on the show?Warren G: Mainly rib eye steaks. I kept thinking, Damn, I gotta have me a nice well done ribeye hooked up G-style, smoking it on the grill and just letting it [takes deep breath, pauses and sighs] Just eatin’ it up!” [Laughs]. There were a couple of times now, don’t get me wrong, I cheated with some cookies or I might’ve had something when I went up to a video shoot that Snoop was doing. They had fried chicken going and I snatched one little piece, but I knew I was gonna work that off in 15 minutes that was going to be gone. They say it wasn’t abnormal to cheat, so I did it. I tried not to, but I did.AllHipHop.com: Courtesy of the hilarious promos currently running on VH1, everyone now knows, that your weight loss, did some things for your sex life. Ahem.Warren G: [Laughs] My sex life was already off the hook, that just added to it, a little more stamina and I got the blood pumping a little bit more. The workout helped enhance, but I was straight already.AllHipHop.com: Do you cook differently for your family now too?Warren G: Yeah, I use olive oil and stuff like that. I really don’t eat rice or pasta and as far as bread, I eat 5 grain. I won’t eat just regular bread, that white bread ain’t no good. I put a twist on everything they taught me. I can eat a steak or chicken and cook it on the grill.I can have a nice four ounce steak with some vegetables on the grill. Then I can maybe have me some brown rice. I’m still eating like I was eating before, but I’m not eating that white rice, pasta or bread. I don’t have a problem with it. People [in Hip-Hop deal with] stress a lot and have anxiety. I used to stress when I had pressure to meet a deadline or something. So, when I work out, that’s kind of what makes me calm. It makes me feel good. I don’t get all riled up and all crazy. Like I said, the way I am on the camera is the way I am in real life. I’m not gonna get on there and put on no phony ish.AllHipHop.com: So how do you handle dining out with your new way of eating?Warren G: When I was over there working with Dre, one of the artists had a birthday. So we ate at Morton’s; I had a filet mignon and some vegetables.AllHipHop.com: How do you feel about your role and being on the show now that you’ve taped the finale?Warren G: It’s showing all of the people in the neighborhood and around the world that we don’t have to just eat a gang of bulls**t all the time. We can look good like the rich people. Since I’ve done the show I got everybody from the hood wanting to get in shape. Everybody I know wants to get in shape. I think that from me doing Celebrity Fit Club it really opened a lot of people’s eyes. You know, you got some people that think they’re too tough for TV or too tough to get in shape. Theyre saying, “Awww, I ain’t getting ready to do that,” and they are really hurting themselves.AllHipHop.com: I get it. Diabetes and high blood pressure is real. Have you ever thought about doing more to up the awareness?Warren G: Well, Dr. Ian from the show is doing a big campaign [the 50 Million Pound Challenge] and he is supposed to call me when he comes to the West, and I’m kind of supposed to be a spokesman. I’m down to help someone change for the better.AllHipHop.com: Any more reality television or acting for you in the future?Warren G: As far as TV, I would love to do this more. Right now, I’m on the hunt for an agent. Also, I have a five million fan base out there, that’s why I can’t let them down by not doing another record. AllHipHop.com: Yeah? What was up with Dustin aka “Screech”?Warren G: I just ignored him because, you know, like he said, he’s just truth and logic. So you keep doing your truth and logic while I do my thing. I ain’t here to try to take over camera time and try to reinvent myself. I didn’t go nowhere, I’m still here. What he is trying to do is reinvent himself and he’s killing himself at the same time, because you are making the world hate you instead of love you. I just don’t let things like that get to me. I got a little hot when he kept picking on Kimberly Locke. She became my teammate so I got at him off camera like, “You gotta stall my teammates out.”AllHipHop.com: Any advice to anyone trying to drop pounds?Warren G: Follow the guide and stick to it. Every now and then you can cheat, but don’t cheat too hard. Just stay focused and lock it in your head, it’s mind over matter. It works. I’m telling you, the weight comes off. AllHipHop.com: Not to sound crazy, but If you had a final meal to choose what would it be?Warren G: A nice juicy ribeye steak with some butter and garlic mashed potatoes with some vegetables, a chocolate soufflé, Lipton Green Tea, some Wings-n-Things, some Louisiana fried chicken, some short ribs, gravy and rice, a nice tall can of Coors Light and I’d chase it with a shot of Patron! [Laughs]Sunny Anderson is current co-host of Food Network’s “Gotta Get It.”